“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic Gods giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.”

Saint Nicholas to Santa Clause

This is one of my all-time favorite feast days to celebrate. I mean, how cool is it that all our present day cultural traditions involving Santa had their start from a real, historical figure? It’s such a perfect way to connect the ‘holidays’ with history.

St. Nicholas was bishop in present day Turkey, was present at the Council of Nicea, and is most famous around the world for the legendary secretive gift giving and life saving acts.

Because of his deeds of charity he is the patron of children. Because of his miraculous rescue of a distressed ship, he is the patron of sailors. Because of his death on December 6th, he became part of our Advent and Christmas traditions.

His day is celebrated in a variety of ways in many countries. Each with a different twist, but all sharing a common thread. He visits. He brings treats. He celebrates the good in children. He encourages us to live in charity.

The way we celebrate as a family is patchwork of traditions. Here it is!

Story

For story suggestions I’m going to point you to the St. Nicholas Center! This website is an incredible resource on all things St. Nicholas. Their book list has choices for all ages and stages, as well as some downloadable books for those of us who don’t have a good library selection or time to order from Amazon .;)

St. Nicholas Center Book Lists

We like The Bakers Dozen by Aaron Shepherd. But there are so many fantastic children’s book options out there!

Prayer Time

Prayer time in our family starts the night before, at night prayer. We sing some St. Nicholas songs and put out our shoes by the fire place.

This German one has a fun, catchy tune. The English translation and midi file are available to listen to:

Lasst uns froh und munter sein

Or, browse through all the other available choices at St. Nicholas Center.

Then we pray one of the prayers on the back of the prayer cards published by the St. Nicholas Center. This one is a lovely one:

Loving God, thank you for St. Nicholas who shows us  a good way to live. He fed the hungry, freed the imprisoned, cared for those in need, and told people about Jesus.

Make su brave, loving, and strong, so that , like St. Nicholas, we may love and serve you as we help those in need, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

In the morning it can all be done again!

Coloring Page

There are so many to choose from! Again, I’ll link you to St. Nicholas Center.

Craft

If you’re feeling crafty, there are many, many ideas out there. A classic is the St. Nicholas Mitre Making craft. A mitre is the tall pointy hat worn by bishops. It is thought that the mitre is the precursor to the present day floppy red santa hat!

For this, I trace a mitre outline on a piece of red construction paper, and cut it out along with two red streps to form a headband. Then I trace a cross on a piece of yellow or white paper and cut it out. Glue the cross onto the mitre, attach the strips to either side and fasten to form a mitre headband!

Again, a million more ideas can be found at the St. Nicholas Center website.

To be honest, we won’t do any crafts at home. We will be participating in a St. Nicholas playdate at the parish this year. So, I don’t anticipate getting too crafty at home that day.

BUT…the big activity for St. Nicholas has to do with the SHOES!

The shoes! The shoes! At night prayer we put the shoes out by the fire place, empty. In the morning the children come downstairs to find them filled with:

• A candy cane to represent the bishop’s crosier.
• Chocolate coins to represent the bishop’s gift of a dowry.
• Clementines, also to represent the gift of the dowry.
• A walnut (if I can find them!) to represent the ship St. Nicholas saved.
• A small toy or book.
• A letter from St. Nicholas.

The letter might be my favorite part of the whole thing! Each year St. Nicholas writes a letter to either the family as a whole or to each person individually. In it the good bishop encourages the children to continue loving and serving one another has he did, as Christ did. St. Nicholas highlights specific examples of times the child as been especially loving, generous, kind and obedient. This is a fun way to praise the good in our children.

It’s also an opportunity to show appreciation for our spouses. I enlist the help of the Hubster to help come up with examples for the letters to the children. But wouldn’t it also be fun to write letters to each other?

The letters don’t need to be long. They can tie the idea of Advent preparations in as well, linking all the acts of charity to the work they do to prepare their hearts for Jesus’ coming!

Print it out on pretty paper if you have it and sign it with a red or gold pen “love, St. Nicholas!”

Treat

The treat is taken care of in the shoes!

I’ve also seen folks purchase chocolate santas and craft little paper mitres to cover the santa hat.

I enjoy making St. Nicholas mold cookies. These are little time intensive, and requires a special piece of equipment. But it’s a tradition I learned from another dear Schoenstatt sister from Germany, and one I’ve tried to keep going with the children.

The company we purchased our mold from is no longer selling them directly. But you can find other St. Nicholas cookie molds or cutters on the web. If you go with a cutter you can use any roll out cookie dough recipe you like!

I will post a picture of our finished product soon, but in the meantime, here’s the simple and tasty cookie recipe that I’ve found works well with the cookie mold:

Cream Cheese Butter Cookies from House on the Hill

This recipe will not hold the design as well as most recipes that are designed for molded cookies, but will satisfy those who wish to have a richer sweeter cookie.

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups flour sifted
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup butter, softened
• 2 ounces cream cheese
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• finely grated rind of one lemon or orange
• 1 teaspoon lemon oil or orange oil

Sift together flour and salt. Cream butter and cream cheese together. Gradually add sugar and mix well. Beat in egg yolk and flavoring. Chill dough well – at least 4 hours, overnight is best.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough on floured surface 1/4 inch thick. Flour cookie mold. Imprint, cut cookies and place on cookie sheet. Repeat.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes till cookies are light brown around the edges. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Cool completely and store in airtight containers.

Flavor Variations
Replace lemon with: 1 teas. Vanilla and ½ teaspoon nutmeg or 1 teas. Vanilla and 1 teas. cinnamon

She forgets to tell you when to add the flour and salt…it’s after the egg yolk and flavoring. I like to use vanilla if I don’t have lemon or orange oil. Kids find them super tasty!

 

And that’s it my friends! “Let’s be glad and full of cheer! Good St. Nichlolas will soon be here!”

If you celebrate, share what it looks like in your home! And check back for the celebrate post on the 6th!